■ Australia
Santa strung up
Either somebody didn't like Santa's singing, or they're just a plain old Scrooge. A 1.5m statue of a singing and dancing Santa Claus was found hanging upside-down from an electricity pole in a Melbourne suburb. Concerned residents cut the statue down and took it to a local police station. "He sang all sorts of things until he went flat," police Constable Cameron Ryan said yesterday of the battery-operated Santa. "He was looking very suspicious, but he wasn't intoxicated."Constable Kellie Houlihan said police were trying to find the statue's owner.
■ India
Police shoot students
Police gunfire killed three college students as they were protesting the alleged sexual molestation of fellow students by police on a train in eastern India, student groups and officials said. A crowd of students and residents gathered on Friday at a train station in Assam state after other students aboard an approaching train telephoned friends in the area and said police on the train had molested female students on board. As the train pulled into the station at the town of Salakati, the protesters charged the traveling policemen's train carriage with bricks and stones and the police then opened fire.
■ Indonesia
Santa does security
Santa isn't just filling stockings in Indonesia. He's also checking packages for bombs in the world's most populous Muslim nation where authorities are gearing up to prevent possible militant attacks. More than two dozen hotel security men dressed like Santa Claus used metal detectors to inspect cars entering a five-star hotel in the heart of Jakarta. As policemen with machine guns looked on, some of Jakarta's Santas frisked visitors and opened bags to check for any unwanted Christmas gifts.
■ Japan
Weather warnings issued
Japan's weather agency yesterday issued warnings for blizzards and avalanches in northern and central Japan as severe cold winds brought record snowfalls to the region. The Meteorological Agency predicted up to 60cm of fresh snow in the northern Hokuriku region, parts of which have already had up to 2.75m of snow, the heaviest snowfall in decades. A blizzard swept through the nation earlier this week, triggering blackouts and injuring hundreds of people in snow-related accidents. One man died in a car crash on a snowy road and in Fukui, northwestern Japan, a 52-year-old construction worker suffered a broken hip and leg yesterday after being swallowed in an avalanche during a roadside snow removal operation.
■ Malaysia
Women charged over strip
Four women in conservative mainly-Muslim Malaysia have been charged with performing a striptease show. The four women, who were waitresses at a nightclub in a Kuala Lumpur suburb, were charged with behaving in an obscene manner while dancing in the nude on Dec. 16, the New Straits Times said. The women who were alleged to have been performing for a group of businessmen, face up to three months in jail or a fine or both if convicted, the Malay Mail said. Malaysia is one of the world's most developed Islamic countries, boasting modern highways, gleaming skyscrapers, resplendent mosques, high-tech factories and a pulsating nightlife of discos and restaurants.
■ Azerbaijan
Plane crash kills 23
The national airline AZAL yesterday said all 23 people aboard a flight bound for Kazakhstan were killed when it crashed overnight near the Caspian Sea coastline. Ten of the 18 passengers were Azerbaijani and four were Kazakhs. The four other passengers were from Australia, Britain, Georgia and Turkey. "Everyone on board was killed." AZAL said in a statement on the official AZTV television channel. The plane crashed shortly after taking off on Friday from the capital Baku en route to the oil town of Aktau.
■ Ethiopia
Border troops pull back
Troops began moving back from the border with Eritrea as a UN deadline for both sides to pull back by midnight on Friday drew near, a source said. The UN Security Council set the deadline in November, when it ordered the African neighbors to reduce troop levels and threatened economic sanctions if they did not obey. Tension has risen as Ethiopia has failed to accept a binding ruling that awarded Eritrea a disputed town. An independent border commission awarded the town of Badme to Eritrea in 2002. Both sides moved soldiers and equipment closer to the border after Eritrea on Oct. 5 banned UN helicopter flights over its territory.
■ Iceland
Iceland wins in Santa race
Only Reykjavik got a reply when news agency bureaus in all eight nations with Arctic territory wrote to Father Christmas or local gift bringers -- ranging from Ded Moroz [Grandfather Frost] in Russia to Julenissen in Norway -- asking: `Where do you live?' "Let's all be good and kind to each other," he replied in Icelandic. The reply, aided by the efficiency of a Nordic postal service and Santa's helpers, might aid Iceland in a battle for hearts and tourist dollars with rival nations claiming Santa. Father Christmas' home is a source of seasonal tension, especially in the Nordic region.
■ Australia
Spoons vanish easily: study
Australian scientists have proved that teaspoons appear to have minds of their own. In a study, a group of scientists from the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health in Melbourne secretly numbered 70 teaspoons and tracked their movements over five months. Supporting their expectations, 80 percent of the spoons vanished -- although those in private areas lasted nearly twice as long as those in communal sections. "An estimated 250 teaspoons would need to be bought annually to maintain a workable population of 70 teaspoons," they wrote in Friday's edition of the British Medical Journal.
■ Italy
Artifacts may be returned
The government has sufficient proof to compel the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to return some key artifacts officials say were looted, the culture minister said. Italy can meet those standards for a sixth-century BC painted Greek vase, known as the Eurphronios Krater, and the ancient Greek Morgantina silver collection, Rocco Buttiglione said on Friday. Buttiglione met last month with Met director Philippe de Montebello to discuss the disputed artifacts that Italian authorities claim were illegally looted. Montebello said in the meeting that he was prepared to ask the museum's board of trustees to return the artifacts if there was conclusive evidence that they were illegally smuggled from Italy.
■ United States
Woman swallows phone
It was a conversation stopper. A lovers' dispute over a cellphone in Blue Springs, Missouri, took a serious turn early on Friday morning when the woman ended the spat by swallowing the phone whole. Police said they received a call at 4:52am from a man who said his girlfriend was having trouble breathing. When they arrived at the house they found the 24-year-old woman had a cellphone lodged in her throat. "He wanted the phone and she wouldn't give it to him, so she attempted to swallow it," Detective Sergeant Steve Decker of the Blue Springs Police Department said. "She just put the entire phone in her mouth so he couldn't get it."
■ Brazil
Cocaine for Christmas
Police said on Friday that they discovered a batch of Santa Claus dolls filled with a surprise Christmas gift: cocaine. The police discovered the 144 5cm Santa figures stuffed with the illegal narcotic in a Rio de Janeiro slum after being tipped off in a telephone call. "All the materials were in the street packed in plastic bags," police spokesman Vania Ferreira said. Police said that, around Christmas time, Rio dealers like to package their drugs with a small present to "reward" clients and attract new ones. Police had not yet weighed the amount of cocaine the Santas carried because of their own holiday celebrations.
■ United States
Military abuse still rampant
Sexual assaults and harassment remain significant problems at US military academies despite recent scandals that triggered intensive training to prevent such problems. Up to 6 percent of the women at the Army, Navy and Air Force academies said they had experienced sexual assault during the 2004-2005 school year, and about half or more said they were sexually harassed, according to a Defense Department survey released on Friday. The academies are where the services educate and train most future career officers. More than two years ago a sex abuse scandal rocked the Air Force Academy, which led to a purge in the academy's leadership.
■ United States
Leader's death marked
The US on Friday marked the death of an imprisoned leader of the Baha'i faith in Iran by blasting Tehran for the "systematic oppression" of religious minorities. Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Washington condemned the persecution of Zabihullah Mahrami, who died of unknown causes on Dec. 15 after 10 years in prison. He was 59. Ereli said Mahrami's detention was not unique, with the hardline Islamic regime "engaged in the systematic oppression of its citizens, including the persecution of individuals for religious, political and other reasons."
■ United States
Jesus Christ: it's official
A Manhattan man's holiday spirits soared to celestial heights on Friday when a judge gave him permission to change his name to Jesus Christ. Jose Luis Espinal, 42, said he was "happy" and "grateful" that the judge approved the change. Espinal said he was moved to seek the name change about a year ago when it dawned on him, "I am the person that is that name. You're dealing with the real deal." Manhattan Civil Court Judge Diane Lebedeff said she was "satisfied that this application is neither novel, nor would granting it pose practical problems." She cited a 2001 Utah case in which a man legally changed his name to "Santa Claus."
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